The present invention relates generally to sharps bins, and more particularly to a medical adherence device.
Traditional medical waste in the form of a needle and/or a syringe requires safe and regulated disposal in most jurisdictions. When patients are sent home with needles and/or syringes to self-administer medication they are often provided with a medical waste bin, sometimes referred to as a sharps bin. In general, a sharp is any device having corners, edges, or projections capable of cutting or piercing the skin, such as a needle of syringe. After each injection, a patient typically disposes of a needle and/or a syringe in the sharps bin. Each sharps bin is usually tracked by sharps bin delivery date, sharps bin collected date, and the date incinerated by a regulated medical waste disposal process service provider.
Ensuring that patients at home take their self-injected medication is a challenge for healthcare providers and pharmaceutical companies who often track how many sharps bins have been collected as a proxy for whether medication has been taken by a patient at home. In general, when a sharps bin is collected from a home location (or any location) it is sealed prior to collection, making it impossible to determine the number of syringes and/or needles in the sharps bin and or whether other waste has also been deposited into the sharps bin. Since it is unsafe and against health and safety practices, policies, and regulations the bin cannot be re-opened and the entire bin is typically incinerated.